The pictures in the article are setting my safety senses humming. Never, ever, make a loop in a chain leadshank. The horse gets away from you, puts a foot into the loop and goodbye - broken leg or neck.
What article are you referring to?
page one here on COTH - the lead story
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/behind-the-stall-door-with-extraordinaire
I think that is a safety issue that isnât brought up enough, and sometimes just flat taught wrong. When I was younger, we were actually taught to do the loop through with the extra chain so you wouldnât get your fingers stuck in the links, etc.
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http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/âŠextraordinaire
It bothers me as well.
I actually watched this happen at a warm up at a show, someone was lunging with the chain looped. Horse was perfectly behaved. Another horse was being fractious, traveling in the same direction, managed to ditch his rider and then flew right behind the lunging horse and got tangled in the line. The horse lunging started panicking, pulled back, and got his leg stuck in the loop because he half-reared to avoid the horse, and fell to the ground with his leg still caught in the chain. It was surreal watching people leap through the fence to try to help him and his handler.
I donât know if he was ok or not, but I know he didnât show that day.
Goes to show you that no matter what you canât predict every outcome and often times it isnât even you that causes the problem, itâs someone else. You might be doing everything right and all it takes is for someone else to come along and put you and your horse at jeopardy.
As far as the article, as a whole (and this is very cynic of me and I freely admit that) - I donât enjoy the âBehind The Stall Doorâ series as much as I want to. Some of them are lovely and you can see the knowledge and care that goes into them. Some of them I donât enjoy so much.
It discourages me to read so much about horses in these top quality stables with âquirksâ that their owners label as cute or âquirkyâ when in reality they are behaviors caused by horses that are unhappy with their management or in pain. Before you think I am making a huge assumption here, Iâm not - theyâre usually listed under a gleaming photo of the horse as âthings you should know about XYZâ. The handlers/interviewees go on to falsely label these behaviors as âcharacteristicsâ or âquirksâ when in reality they are behaviors the horse is demonstrating because he is unhappy or in pain - often in the article no mention is made of these quirks possibly having physical origins.
This article was ok (I find Santos adorable) but the ones that say stuff like âhe only goes out 1 hr a dayâ or âheâs so grumpy but we love himâ, âhe hates grooming but thatâs just his personalityâ or âhe doesnât have a good appetite/heâs a picky eater.â âHe had a history of refusals but my riding saved himâ, etc - those are the ones that bother me.
And then thereâs the closeups of their bodies - they are in top condition, beautiful coats, trimmed to the nines, positively blooming horses with glistening coats and dark rosette dapples⊠and then you get to their hooves and go :eek: Or they are standing so far under themselves you know theyâre backsoreâŠ
I guess itâs nice (in a convoluted way) to know even professionals struggle to find good farriers sometimesâŠ
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One of my bigger pet peeves. If the horse needs a chain put it over the nose. If he doesnât need a chain then use a lead line. Letting the full chain hang down or worse yet doubling it up drives me nuts. I hate when I am handed a horse that has a chain shank but the chain is hanging down and not over the nose. Great let me have minimal control because the horse has leverage on me if I hold the rope or risk ripping my hand up holding the chain. Hmmm⊠there is a lovely choice.
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One of my worst pet peeves and practically stopped my heart when I saw someone handling my horse with a chain like that. Either use the chain as a chain or get a leadrope.
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Thank you for the link 
Didnât see any mention of Extraordinaire in the Most Popular so wasnât sure.
I was always very careful to avoid loops (even with my dog leashes).
This is âiffyâ in that the loop, to me, doesnât appear to be around any body parts but between the thumb and the rest of her fingers. But, still wouldnât do this. Way too easy to have a nasty accident.
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You are thinking of a different loop. We are referring to doubling the chain and snapping it back on itself, creating a loop under the halter that is very easy to get a hoof through when the horse lowers his head. That is catastrophic and usually ends in the horseâs death.
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With a leather halter itâs probable that he could escape it if a hoof got caught. But I donât get why people use the chain in that way. Use it weaved thru the halter or as a single chain on the lead.
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I used to do this all the time⊠until I almost had my fingers ripped off when an otherwise quiet sales mare came with a serious âbolting when turned outâ problem. I put my hand on the chain to undo the snap, she flew backwards without warning, my fingers became caught in the looped chain because I was still holding the shank in my opposite hand. Luckily I had gloves on that allowed my hand to slide free, but I still lost a fingernail. It was a scary freak accident that could have injured me much more severely. No more looping the chain for me!
Same here.
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Thanks for clarifying Laurierace. Yes, different loop. I have rarely used a chain shank and when I did use it, it was either clipped directly to the halter or over the nose but never even seen the loop like that. I can sure see the potential disaster from that (just didnât even think of that.)
In the body of the article it shows her hand grazing him with that loop. One move the wrong way and his hoof is through that thing. The best scenario is a degloved leg, the worst is death.
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IME, itâs not uncommon to see these high end barns with horses of this caliber handling every horse with a leather lead with a chain and never have the horse actually need the chain as itâs meant to be used. Itâs a normality I wish would die.
As much as I love the idea of rich leather haltersâŠI find them useless. No communicatory abilities whatsoever. Thereâs a reason rope halters were invented.
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Last horse show I was at a horse stepped thru that loop. Super scary, horse was brilliantly calm, it could have gone very badlyâŠ
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I use a leather halter and leather lead with a chain daily, but I donât loop it. Never had an issue when I worked with 30+ horses a day. I do on the other hand despise a rope halter. Its too much for the sensitive types.
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This. ^ I think people do this because the chain is so long (has to be, to go over the nose) that if you just clip it on the halter, thereâs a ton of chain just swinging loose. The obvious way to address that in the moment, when the chain shank is all you have but you donât feel like you need it, is to double it over. (The safe way to address it is to use the chain as intended or swap out the lead shank.) It would be nice if all chain shanks had detachable chains so there was another safe and obvious option.
I prefer rope halters personally. My older horse used to be very spooky and I found that rope halters gave much better control at shows than a leather halter with a chain. Not very dressage-y though. :rolleyes:
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I was at Devon (though not in eyesight) when someoneâs horse who was handgrazing got his foot stuck in an untwisted-chain looped at the end of his halter. I will never forget what that sounded like. I have no idea what happened to the horse.
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I canât stand rope halters, myself. Hate the look, hate the way you have to tie them up, and have never found they give any more control than a leather or nylon halter. I only buy breakaway halters now, either full leather or just the strap. I also donât mind using a chain shank with the chain hanging all the way down (NO looping as discussed). To each their own, if itâs safe!
I had a friend at a barn I boarded at whoâs horse caught his foot in a looped chain. He had a small panic but thankfully went the way of standing statue still after about 2 seconds of struggle, and so his owner was able to free him and he had no serious injuries. This was about 8-10 years ago and Iâm pretty sure sheâs never looped a chain since.
I had to Google it, I wasnât sure you could even buy a leather lead without a chain - but you can! I donât use leather leads though - have never done an in-hand class at a show and love my cotton leads.
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